Facebook’s founding role in the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) may be emphasized less these days than it used to, as the body aims to represent a wide range of operators (some of whom are threatened, in the consumer market, by the social media giant). But the company continues to innovate behind the scenes, facilitating or even developing enabling technologies that could accelerate the roll-out of high quality mobile broadband (supporting Facebook services of course) to the next billion.
Facebook has contributed small cell, antenna and backhaul designs to the open networks community and helps to bankroll TIP and the Open Compute Project (OCP), which is also increasingly relevant to telcos as they start to consider migration of their networks to general purpose cloud platforms.
The web giant’s latest interesting development focuses on self-optimizing network (SON) technology, which could hint at a role for the company in the emerging RIC (RAN Intelligent Controller) platform. A key element of the O-RAN architecture, the RIC expands on SON functionality and abstracts near-real time control functions, that have usually been embedded in the radio, to run on the cloud.
For now, Facebook’s SON development is focused on small cells running in the USA’s shared CBRS spectrum and other midrange bands such as 2.5 GHz (mainly owned by T-Mobile) and C-band (the focus of Verizon’s and AT&T’s major 5G expansions this year). The tests will also run in the 3.5 GHz CBRS band with Spectrum Access System (SAS) technology from CommScope.
Facebook has asked the FCC for permission to test a 5G small cell network across a wide range of spectrum bands at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
“The purpose of operation is to demonstrate the SON features in a 5G over-the-air set-up operating in a small cell configuration,” it wrote in its application. “Lab testing does not allow feature realization. The outdoor test set-up aims at validating the improvements done to 5G cellular networks. The improvements involve: (1) load balancing between the cells in an attempt to optimize the resource utilization, reduce call drops, and create a better user experience by means of improved quality of service; and (2) run-time selection and updates of the 5G cell physical layer cell identifiers (PCIs) to avoid conflict between neighboring cells, thereby avoiding UE [user equipment] drops and reducing network signaling traffic.”
Facebook will work with Kaelus, which supplies test and measurement equipment for wireless networks.
The purpose of this multi-spectrum test is unclear but it could feed into several areas of interest. Developing SON and future RIC technology would help Facebook create an orchestration layer that could enable it to drive open standards in this area, or provide multi-network, multivendor orchestration services itself – carving out a controlling role for itself in the world of open, cloud-based networks.
It could be showing an interest, as AWS and Google have, in driving forward a connectivity platform in shared spectrum that could provide an alternative to working with the MNOs while adding 5G connectivity to its web services. While Facebook is unlikely to want to operate networks, it has developed technologies such as its Terragraph radios that can help enable alternative deployers to the large telcos, and a mesh of these smaller service providers could eventually be the basis of a major 5G platform. Automation techniques such as SON and advanced orchestration would be essential to coordinate localized networks in shared spectrum from different service providers.
Facebook has done work on SON in the past, notably through its close cooperations with Reliance Jio, which developed its own JioSON technology for 4G, and is working on its own implementations of 5G.